Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

Why is there talk of having to sell to buy etc in here for Liverpool? clubs like Norwich for example have been splurging the new TV money and yet a club like Liverpool who seemingly have already saved a lot from their wage bill (and if im not wrong have already a net profit of around 3/4m not inc loan fees from the summers ins and outs so far after Downings been moved on) as well as having that TV money cant buy unless they sell players first?

There isn't actually any talk of that, there was just a question asked if that was the case. I don't think it is. Pretty healthy looking financially, and the owners have repeatedly stated the money is there for the right signings. Hopefully a move over the next few days will prove that.

Sideshow Mark wrote: »

Loved The Damned United, but the extract on Amazon put me off. I know I couldn't do 700 pages of this...

Hard reading but well worth it - I felt like I was going as mad as Clough reading the Damned United. Ken Early spot on when he said that the film ruined the book

fangee wrote: »

I'd prefer to see Sterling or Ibe get a chance or even Borini and spend that cash on a CB.

I hope there is no more money spent on defenders! Already four CB's at the club and sure defending is a mugs game, attacking midfielders is where its at. Lets just say this Willian lad is a donedeal, thats a nice bit of flair between himself and Couthinio and I don't think we've had much of that in recent years.

Whydoes willian only have 2 caps for brazil if he was that good should he not have more,who is his direct competition in the brazil team would it be hulk or neymar or the chelsea lad(his name escapes me)

shamrock55 wrote: »

Whydoes willian only have 2 caps for brazil if he was that good should he not have more,who is his direct competition in the brazil team would it be hulk or neymar or the chelsea lad(his name escapes me)

I'm sure there is plenty of talent from Brazil with little or no caps for the national team, you just have to look at Couthinio.

shamrock55 wrote: »

Whydoes willian only have 2 caps for brazil if he was that good should he not have more,who is his direct competition in the brazil team would it be hulk or neymar or the chelsea lad(his name escapes me)

Means f%ck all, sure Doni only got 10 caps.

Willian sounds great and all that, would be an exciting buy, but as I said with Mk, I see them as luxury buys, CB and DM were the 2 priorities for me. FSG have a consistent record of spending decent money in transfer windows, January 2012 the only exception, as I said before people saying we aren't signing anybody else if Suarez stays have zilch to go on.

We aren't a sell to buy club under FSG, sell to try and reduce losses on players club. maybe, like Carroll and Downing, Suarez would need to go for over £55 Million to break even there.

If we were to get the front 4 we're dreaming of (Willian, Coutinho, Suarez and Sturridge), I think the defensive situation would naturally improve. Enrique and Johnson would be less required to drive forward all the time, the 2 CM's could likewise stay that little bit deeper to cover breaks, and with all that taken into account we have a situation where our CB's aren't so stretched. Under those circumstances, the likes of Skrtel might look like footballers again.

We'd just be more balanced all round with less need for overlapping of jobs/responsibilities.

K-9 wrote: »

Willian sounds great and all that, would be an exciting buy, but as I said with Mk, I see them as luxury buys, CB and DM were the 2 priorities for me. FSG have a consistent record of spending decent money in transfer windows, January 2012 the only exception, as I said before people saying we aren't signing anybody else if Suarez stays have zilch to go on.

We aren't a sell to buy club under FSG, sell to try and reduce losses on players club. maybe, like Carroll and Downing, Suarez would need to go for over £55 Million to break even there.

I not so sure we need another CB. It's not sol long since Skrtel was player of the year, hopefully he can get some of that form back. The extra competition from Toure should help here by keeping him in his toes. I actually think Toure could turn out to be a very good acquisition and might surprise us all.
Another player to help or even improve on Lucas is something that we should have looked at getting in. Too often we were left exposed at the back last year and misplaced passes often lead to a direct assault upon our centre back pairing. That kind of situation will show up a lot of defenders.

All of that wouldn't matter as much if we could create more clear cut chances in the final third. The Celtic game, albeit a friendly, highlighted something that has been papered over by some thumpings towards the tale end of the season and that is our ineffectual finishing.
First half of last season, Villa at Anfield being a good example, we dropped points due to our pisshorn(rarnes1's phrase I think) attack. That's why a bit more creative flair was needed this summer. William garners a lot of assists and can chop in with a few goals also, this is essential. Allen and Henderson are both lacking in regards to goals and assists, not without good qualities though, and we cannot rely too much on Countinho to create.

I must admit I'm disappointed so far with our transfer window. Aspas looks great so far and could turn out to be an excellent signing. Alberto is a bit underwhelming so far but has potential possibly. Mignolet should be an adequate replacement but we need more than a replacement, potential, possible gem and an old hand. We need someone to add to the first team now and Rodgers has noted this.
What's the hold up?

Our year..maybe

Knex. wrote: »

If only Gerrard was five years younger...

Nah, screw that! If gerrard was 5 years younger there is no way we would have won the champion's league in 2005 which would mean taking away my best ever moment/s supporting this club.

Jewel Clean Billionaire wrote: »

Completely disagree here mate. This move or Willian gets me very excited and I think he would fit perfect into the premiere league and the Liverpool team.

This signing alone will take LFC into a champions league place in my opinion. Regeardleas of a CB.

I think Liverpools major problem over the last two years has been converting goal scoring opportunities and generally lacking in the final third. I will admit that the defence is not rock solid but I don't believe that is the priority. After all the best form of defence is attack.

~Rebel~ wrote: »

If we were to get the front 4 we're dreaming of (Willian, Coutinho, Suarez and Sturridge), I think the defensive situation would naturally improve. Enrique and Johnson would be less required to drive forward all the time, the 2 CM's could likewise stay that little bit deeper to cover breaks, and with all that taken into account we have a situation where our CB's aren't so stretched. Under those circumstances, the likes of Skrtel might look like footballers again.

We'd just be more balanced all round with less need for overlapping of jobs/responsibilities.

A new CB would be nice, but I have to say I agree with these 2 posts. A huge amount of games are decided by our (in)efficiency in the final third, particularly during periods of early dominance. For example, you might look at home losses to Villa and WBA last season and think `poor defending', but those matches should never have even reached the stage that we should have been thinking about our defending.

Swapping in Willian in for Downing could make a HUGE difference.

I'm not sure if this was put up earlier, but this is a fairly balanced preview of our season, backed up with a few stats. It's an excellent, interesting article and I'd suggest giving it a read.

http://www.statsbomb.com/2013/08/epl-201314-season-preview-liverpool/


A Spurs fan sent it to me, and despite being quite inebriated tonight I think I managed a coherent response.

This is my reply to him and my general view for the season ahead and what will be key (in relation to that article) -

'They couldn’t do it directly, but replaced him with a number of players and the team improved overall' will possibly be even more relevant to Spurs' season to Liverpool's. A lot of unknown factors for you guys to some extent but if they click and you keep Bale you could get high up the table.

'My personal prediction is 6th and 68-70 points.' I would agree with that. I think we're 6th favourites but I also think we're well capable of passing 70 points (since Sturridge and Coutinho have been in our ppg has been over 70 pts, with a GD better than any other club in the league). The possibility of a few slip ups above us (which is definitely possible considering how unpredictable this season is) makes talk of 4th not outlandish. The big thing (and its touched on in the article) is the form of Sturridge and Coutinho. The sample size is small. If they keep up what they have done we will undoubtedly be in the race for 4th, but it is a small sample size and you only have to look at Jelavic and Papiss Cisse last season to see January signings who started well but then flopped. My prediction is that Coutinho will largely be very good with the odd off-form match, but Sturridge I'm slightly less sure of. I do think he's a very good player but I don't think he'll have the consistency to get anywhere near his goal per game record from last year.

The point about Miglonet I really hope comes to fruition and I think is a good point - but it's still somewhat a case of wait and see.

A lot of those 'crazy shots' they talk about are Suarez's doing. They don't show them on his highlight reel but he needs to cut them out.

Shot conversion; 'However this improvement was still not enough to pull them above the Premier League mean. To seriously challenge for the top 4, Liverpool are going to have to return a well above average conversion rate, this means improving from an all-box conversion of 0.135 to 0.15 or even 0.16' - This is probably the most important point and its been our problem for a long time. We had more shots than any other PL team last season. In terms of 'dominating' games (possession, shots, final third activity etc,,,) we match or better basically any of the teams in the league. However there is a mix of not creating the right type of chance and not being efficient in converting them which leaves us with way too many frustrating draws (or even losses) that should have been 3 points. Another signing in the front 3 (Willian?) could be vital to putting these teams to the sword and racking up points.

Finally, you know I love stats but with Liverpool some of them can be misleading. Why? Because in any of our games against non-top 6 sides we tend to either wither to a frustrating draw (or loss), or absolutely hammer them by a wide margin. You'll see a huge amount of goals scored last year, and also an impressive clean sheet tally. Taken alone they are impressive stats. Then you look at the points tally and think, what happened? The problem is putting it together at the right time and putting it together consistently. If you watch the match tomorrow (Liverpool vs Stoke) watch out mainly for the first 20-25 minutes. This tends to be when our matches against poor teams are decided. If we score in this period, we will likely win very comfortably and could rack up a 3 or 4 nil win. If we don't, it's anyone's game - Stoke will have survived the early onslaught, will feel confident and a sense of the inevitable will sink in to Liverpool´s team and crowd. At this stage a 0-0 would be a shrewd bet, though it's possible either team could nick it by one. Liverpool's main challenge this year will be not letting these type of matches fall to lottery, and to consistently capitalise on the inevitable dominance early on - or have the mentality and quality to know we can do it late. Because we generally have no problem 'outplaying' our opposition, but unfortunately that doesn't lead to a guaranteed 3 points. I feel another good signing along the front 3 is key to this.

So I think we could surprise a few this year who have become accustomed to us finishing around 7th. But there's definitely still some question marks there, and with the league being so competitive 4th is still going to be really difficult. But definitely possible.